


You Did This To Me

by megsblackfire



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Dealing With Guilt, Lot of blood, M/M, dream scape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-23 19:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11408874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megsblackfire/pseuds/megsblackfire
Summary: It was a dream. He knew that. He knew it was a dream and that it wasn't real and if he could just take control of the situation, he could walk away. But he couldn't walk away, not this time. This time he had to face the truth of what he had done and stare Jack Morrison in the face. What was left of it, anyways.





	You Did This To Me

Gabriel walked through his dream, heading for the circling carrion birds. Fear gripped his gut, twisting it into a nest of anxiety and trepidation. He didn’t want to see what the carrion birds were waiting for, but he had to. He was compelled to. He  _ had _ to know.

He crested a hill and stared down at the figure hunched over in the middle of the wasteland. It was every stereotypical desert landscape he’d ever seen; nothing for miles but a few dead trees and nasty little bushes. The ground was dry as a bone and cracked, splitting the earth into perfect squares that rose up desperately towards the sky.

The figure was charred and bleeding, hunched on the ground with their hands over their head. The carrion birds swooped down and ripped chunks of flesh for the figure’s body, shrieking and cawing in delight as they flew off with their morsel. Gabriel walked forward slowly and started shaking the closer he got.

Between the fingers clasped over the burned head, he could see wisps of golden blond hair. He knew who this burned figure was. He knew what the carrion birds were. He wanted to get out of here, to run as far away as he could from the guilt that was eating away at his insides, but his feet continued forward.

Rotten eyes looked at him as the figure lifted their head. Gabriel wanted to vomit at the sight, but his body was paralyzed. Slowly, the figure started shaking, struggling to get to their feet. Gabriel reached out, ready to grab their elbow and keep them upright, but they threw his hand away from them with a shriek.

“You did this to me!” Jack Morrison screeched. “You left me to burn!”

“Useless!” one of the carrion birds shrieked as they swooped down and ripped a chunk of charred flesh from Jack’s face. 

“Bring us his head!” another agreed as they slashed his other cheek open.

“Down with Overwatch! Down with Overwatch!” they shrieked as they flew back up into the sky.

Gabriel forced his guilt down, desperate to turn it into anger. Anger he could do something about; guilt was useless to him. Even if the more he stared at Jack’s charred, mutilated face, the more he realized who was really betrayed, he had to think of something else. He would fall apart otherwise.

“You’re bitching because you got to play hero?” he demanded. “Oh, were the limelights too bright for you, sunshine?”

“They burned,” Jack snarled. “They were always on me. I never had a moment to myself. I was always smiling for the crowds, burning under their gaze, being picked apart by everyone! There was no respite!”

“DOWN WITH OVERWATCH!” the birds screeched, diving down to rip more of Jack’s flesh from his bones. “Down with Morrison!”

“Gabriel should have gotten that promotion,” one bird hissed as it landed on Jack’s shoulder.

Gabriel’s stomach twisted as he recognized Angela Ziegler’s features on the bird’s face. The bird sweetly preened Jack’s hair before viciously ripping a long strip of flesh from Jack’s throat. 

“You were only interested in yourself, you selfish prick,” Angela sneered. “You thought you had it worse than everyone. Oh, boo hoo, the poor Golden Boy has to smile all day. How hard it must be for you to play with the big boys while Gabriel’s out risking his life.”

Tears fell from Jack’s ruined eyes. “I never said I had it worse,” he whispered. “I just….”

“You wanted to be pitied,” Angela sneered as she patted his head with her wing. “You wanted everyone to be at your beck and call.”

“No,” Jack shook his head. “No, that’s not true!”

“Deny it all you want, Jack,” Angela snorted before tearing another strip of flesh from his face, “you always were good at lying to yourself.”

Angela took flight and Jack covered his face. “I just wanted someone I could trust,” he whimpered as he swayed on the spot. “I wanted someone to lean on. Why did you leave me, Gabriel? Why did you run off to play in the shadows while I was left to be blinded?”

“I was suffocating,” Gabriel snapped. “I wanted you to save me!”

“I can’t save you when I’m the one in the cage!” Jack snarled.

Steel bars exploded out of the ground, snaring Jack in a cage designed for a tiny bird. The birds screeched, landing on the bars and tearing at his face. Gabriel watched as blood splattered against the dry earth, soaking in without showing any signs of relieving the baked earth.

“I needed to be saved! I needed to be helped!” Jack sobbed. “No one listened! No one cared! I was left in my cage while my mouth was wired into a smile and my eyes were held open and all anyone said was how  _ special _ I was for thinking I needed help.”

Jack’s hands lowered and Gabriel backed away. Wires forced his mouth open, twisting it into a mannequin’s smile. His ruined eyes were held open, preventing him from even blinking. He let out a broken sob and sank to his knees.

“Why?” he whimpered. “Why did you abandon me? Why did you treat me like shit? I didn’t do anything to deserve this! I trusted you! I took the promotion because you told me to! You said I was made for it. Why did you leave me to burn?!”

Gabriel grabbed the bars of the cage and tried to wrench them open. “I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

He bolted upright in bed and stared silently at the wall. He could hear the other Talon agents sleeping around him, waiting patiently for the order to carry out their next mission. Who were they killing this time again? Some well-to-do businessman looking to make a difference in the world. What did they matter?

He collapsed into smoke and hurried out of the room, ignoring the glare he got from Widowmaker as she sat up keeping watch. Jack couldn’t be far. He’d been so close in Egypt. He couldn’t have gotten far.

Gabriel had never been so happy to be right. He found Jack curled up in a safehouse, pointedly not sharing a room with Ana. He settled down beside Jack and ran his fingers through the white hair. Blue eyes snapped open and Gabriel put his hand over Jack’s mouth as his mask melted away.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as Jack stared at him. “I’m sorry. I hurt you and I can never take back what I did. I’m sorry.”

“Gabe,” Jack whispered as he reached up and cupped Gabriel’s face. “Who did this to you?”

“You,” he whispered. “Me. Mostly me. I’m so sorry, Jack. You were dying and I could only see my own pain.”

“Gabe?” Jack frowned. “What are you…?”

“I’m sorry,” Gabriel pulled Jack in against his chest and buried his mutilated face in Jack’s hair. “I’m sorry. I’ll never let that happen again.”

“Gabe,” Jack murmured before he wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s chest, clutching him close. “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t,” he promised. “Never again. I promise.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Before anyone tries to claim that I'm painting Jack as innocent of everything, remember that this is Gabriel's guilt coming through in his dreams. It didn't necessarily happen like this or even be remotely true; this is how Gabriel's subconscious deals with the fact that his best friend/lover/husband/Blizzard refuses to tell us what they were but they were clearly very close had to deal with the press and the public all by himself and was shredded to pieces every single time over the stupidest shit. Gabe is feeling massively guilty about everything; he's got a lot to atone for. And so does Jack.


End file.
